Learning the Chinese way

KENT BLECHYNDEN / The Dominion Post

TOP DIVE: Wellington College diver Tom Green training off the platform at Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre.

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Tom Green has first-hand knowledge of how China has dominated the sport of diving at Olympic and world championship level for the past decade.

Green, 17, a nationally ranked diver and aspiring coach, travelled to Shenzhen, China, on a scholarship awarded by the Wellington Diving Club.

The scholarship was established by Gordon Ng who set up the club 20 years ago and now coaches in Hong Kong.

Despite the language barrier, Green, a Wellington College year 12 pupil, felt at home during his 10-day visit in August. He watched in awe as Chinese coaches and young athletes dedicated hours to drilling each intricate move.

"Diving-wise to see the top country in the world training, just one club, it was obvious how they get results from their training," Green said.

"The children there go to school, but school revolves around diving. Here you're doing your sport, revolving around school. Diving is pretty much their life and they do everything around it."

"There are eight-year-olds training 20 hours a week. Here they'd just be training once or twice a week just doing jumps."

The facilities at the sports school in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, where the diving club was based were far removed from Kilbirnie's aquatic centre where Green coaches a small Wellington Diving Club squad. Before his trip Green had never seen lifts taking divers up to the platform. Here they walk up concrete stairs.

There was even a dedicated gym for out-of-pool training. "There were huge foam pits which were quite cool," he said. "They had numerous diving boards on to crash mats so that all of them could train at once."

Green watched and took part in sessions. "I just felt watching the others that I could learn a lot. The coaches over there are perfectionists. They won't let you move on until you've nailed the basics."

Away from diving, Green, his Wellington coach James Hardaker, and Samuel Marsden Collegiate's Fiona Cameron slotted into the different culture with ease.

Green enjoyed the food, although he often couldn't tell exactly what he was eating because he couldn't read the menu. "It was amazingly different. You get there and everyone is staring at you. The whole trip we only saw two other white people there. It's crazy."

"Sometimes we'd just point at the menu and hope it wasn't too disgusting. But the food was actually really nice."

He has tried out some of the concepts on his young squad at the Wellington club and he believes they are benefiting from his new- found knowledge.

"A couple of them just went up to Hamilton and they did really well there."

Next year he hopes other young divers will join his group. Green is being trained as a coach by Wellington High Performance elite coach Steven Zhu, but was wary of predicting an international coaching future for himself.

"I'm enjoying it. I'll just really look at the present and I'll see how it goes from there."

Green was certain he would make every effort to return to China. "I hope I can go back there. It's an awesome country. Probably not any time soon."

He will compete at the national championships in Auckland next week in the 16 to 18 years age- group. His best event is the platform.

- © Fairfax NZ News